The present invention relates to the field of bathroom accessories, and more particularly to a novel double-handle faucet, which can avoid lead hazard, ensures a structural strength, and has a low cost.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional double-handle faucet 9 mainly comprises two valve seats 91, two spools 92, two handles 93, two inlet pins 94, an outlet pipe 95, a connecting tube 96, an upper panel 97, and a lower panel 98. The two valve seats 91 and the connecting tube 96 are casted into one piece. The two inlet pins 94 form a water connection with the outlet pipe 95 via the connecting tube 96. The spools 92 are installed in the valve seats 91 to control the conduction state between the inlet pins 94 and the connecting tube 96. An end of the control lever 921 of the spool 92 passes through the upper panel 97 and then is connected with the handle 93. A lower end of the inlet pin 94 passes through the lower panel 98 and then is jacketed with a gasket 99 so as to connect with a cool water pipe or a hot water pipe. Thereby, during use, one can obtain water with a suitable temperature from the outlet pipe 95 by rotating the two handles 93. In the conventional double-handle faucet 9 described above, the valve seats 91 and the connecting tube 96 are generally made of a copper alloy, which not only has a high cost, but also pose certain hazard on the user due to lead in the copper alloy.
To solve the above problems, many manufacturers have developed to mold the double-handle faucet 9 in such a manner that the valve seats 91 and the connecting tube 96 are formed by engineering plastics, and the valve seats 91 and the inlet pins 94 are then connected by secondary encapsulation. In this way, the pollution of water due to lead in the copper alloy is overcome. However, in the practical processing, engineering plastics of high quality are applied to ensure the whole strength of the double-handle faucet 9. As a result, this suffers from a relatively high cost, which has a significantly adverse effect on the mass marketing of the product.
In view of this, the present inventor has made an intensive study on the above drawbacks of the existing double-handle faucet 9, and thus come up with the present invention.